Japanese New Year 2010

I thought that I wrote about this, but I couldn't find it so I am updating this now. New Years is a big deal in Japan. Because I have been such a non-Japanese Japanese I didn't recognize this celebration when I was growing up. I knew that we went to my grandmother's on New Years but I figured it was because we didn't go at Christmas. Now that I work with several Japanese Americans who actual celebrate like Japanese, I realized that my grandmother did traditional Japanese New Years. Gwyne has done this for several years and a couple of years ago I decided that I might try. This is the first year I planned ahead and cooked some traditional dishes. I invited some friends and family over, and had a great time. Barrett enjoying some of the good.

The Fords came over. Here Greg, Owen and Brandon are checking out the traditional dishes.

My Greg, Sue, Gavin and Tasha tried it all too.

Here is a dish I remember from childhood. This is Gwyne's favorite: Tazukuri, candied dried sardines. I was really proud of the boys for trying it.

Additional dishes were namasu (picked diakon and carrot); kinpira gobo (braised burdock root); sunimono (picked cucumbers). To fill tummies I also made teriaki chicken, rice and green beans.